Waiting
by Naisa
Summary: Sarah is still waiting for Abby, Connor and Danny to return. As hope dwindles away, she finds comfort in some one she has always cared for. One-shot.


Waiting

Sarah Page sat alone by the anomaly detector, waiting. She had been waiting for days now, perhaps even weeks, which would slowly be stretching into months. She wasn't sure and didn't want to know how long she had been waiting. All the days seemed to be the same now, so it was hard to keep track on how many passed. Time seemed to be moulding together, mixing like different colours of paint, entwining together to create something completely different and looking back on it, it would be hard to interpret how this new colour had formed. Wherever this had come from the new colour was a dull grey in Sarah's mind. There was nothing exciting about her waiting, day after day, for the right anomaly to open.

Abby, Connor and Danny had been missing for so long now. Every day that passed, every hour, every minute, every _second_, Sarah grew more and more worried, and hope dwindled away. So many questions buzzed around her head like flies: What was taking them so long? Why hadn't they come back? Were they safe? Were they all still alive? But there was no way of knowing, no way of answering the questions so in Sarah's mind, they were as good as dead.

Sarah let out a deep, shuddering sigh as she thought this, but she didn't cry. There was something at the back of her head telling her that they could still be alive, there could still be hope. If she cried, it would almost be like she had accepted that they were never coming back, and it was all over, but they could still come back. Her heart felt as if was being weighed down by the worry and the sadness, she didn't realise she would miss them so much. But she wasn't going to give up on them yet, they wouldn't do that to her.

It had never dawned on Sarah how tedious, how nerve racking it was, waiting for the sirens to burst into life, waiting for the red lights to flash urgently as an anomaly emerged somewhere in her world. Perhaps one day an anomaly would appear, and they would find Abby, Connor and Danny. Sarah could picture them in her head tumbling through an anomaly, exhausted, filthy, but alive. She often had pictures of them in her head, sometimes she thought that they haunted her dreams, as she sometimes woke up thinking that they had returned, only to realise a few minutes later that there had been no sign of them at work, and it was just her imagination. She hated to think what it was like for them living out in the wilderness of a lost and forgotten world, how could anyone survive out there? It seemed that Helen Cutter could, perhaps she wasn't the only one, Sarah held onto that thread of hope too.

What was the most frustrating thing of all through these days of waiting, was that anomaly sightings had been unusually quiet. There had been a period of time where it felt like anomalies were popping up by the minute, but now they were hardly ever around, and if they were they were only small. What seemed to be the worse thing was that there was never any sign that an anomaly might be appearing soon, there was no way of predicting when one might appear. The only person who could predict when the anomalies were going to occur was Nick Cutter, and he was gone forever. But she tried not to think about this.

For a few moments, Sarah pulled her eyes away from the screen to gaze around the room she was in. It was a Saturday, and she was alone, there were a few technicians and scientists wandering around, but no one else, there was no need for soldiers or a huge swarm of scientists or even Lester. Everyone was at home, or with their families and friends, with little to worry or care about. Sarah sighed again, wondering what it was like to have such a carefree life as she turned back to the anomaly detector. It was just her, sitting alone, waiting.

"Sarah?"

Sarah almost jumped out of her skin when she heard the voice, it was familiar but unusually soft and worried sounding. Something behind her and something touch her shoulder. She whipped around to confirm her suspicions as to who it was.

"Becker," she let out a sigh of relief. "Don't scare me like that!" Sarah tried to make herself sound annoyed, but she couldn't help letting a smile break over her face. The dull paints of time that filled her mind had suddenly turned very colourful with Captain Becker's presence.

"Sorry," said Becker hastily, taking his hand off her shoulder quickly.

Captain Becker waited for a few moments, as if he was expecting to be told off by Sarah some more, the last thing he wanted was to frighten her, but she said nothing. Deciding that he had been let off this time, Becker sat down beside Sarah in a chair.

"I was just concerned about you." He explained.

"I'm fine," Sarah lied. The truth was that she wasn't fine, she hadn't been since the day Abby, Connor and Danny had disappeared. But Becker gave her a little comfort, and made her feel better.

Becker knew that Sarah was lying, he could see it in her eyes, which were unusually dull and sad. But there was no way he could drag the answer out of her, so he tried to think of something else to say.

"What are you doing here?" He asked her. "It's Saturday, it's your day off," he added, seeing the confused look on Sarah's face.

"How did you know it was my day off?" Sarah demanded, not meaning to sound so suspicious. Even she hadn't realised it was her day off, she had other things on her mind.

"I know what days everyone is working, it's my job to look after you isn't it?" Becker pointed out, taken aback a little by Sarah's harsh response, and trying not to give away the fact that he actually only knew what days Sarah worked, because he always noticed when she was gone.

"Well someone has to keep an eye on this," Sarah nodded at the anomaly detector, her voice becoming a happier tone once more. "And I also have no life," she smiled at this and laughed, which made Becker smile, but it was not a happy laugh, and it worried him a little. "What are you doing here on a Saturday?" She asked, turning to him so they were face to face.

"Same reason," Becker replied with a shrug, giving a small smile.

This statement created a moment of silence between both of them, as they were unsure of what to say to each other next. It was a comforting silence, which was strange so immediately made it uncomfortable at the same time. Sarah shifted in her seat a little, trying to think of something to say and make sense of these odd few moments of silence and the emotions running through her. She was also wondering why her heart was suddenly racing at a hundred-miles-an-hour and if Captain Becker perhaps felt the same. She stared down at her feet, which she found herself doing a lot recently when she was thinking or was embarrassed about something. When she looked up again she was surprised to see Becker watching her closely with his piercing, beautiful black eyes; she had never really taken time to notice how stunning his eyes were.

"It's been quiet lately hasn't it?" Becker noted, deciding that this was the only thing he could think of at the moment to start up a conversation.

Sarah nodded in agreement. "Never thought I would get bored with this job," she admitted, smiling to herself.

"Are you all right?" Becker asked Sarah, deciding he had to know what was troubling her so much. He could see right through her fake smile.

Sarah nodded, then sighed and shook her head. "I miss them." She explained in a murmur, quickly looking back down at her feet again, she hadn't realised how long she must have been staring into Becker's eyes.

"They'll be fine." Becker knew what she meant when she said 'them', it was a subject that was on everyone's mind much of the time, and yet no one spoke of it.

"I'm worried how long we'll be able to cope without them, and how long they'll be able to cope without us." Sarah admitted. She wasn't stupid, she knew it was only a matter of time before a huge anomaly opened up and let a herd of prehistoric beats stormed through. The longer she had to wait, the worse their chances were of surviving, and the more chances there were of something terrible happening in her time, though she hated to think this.

"We know that Abby, Connor and Danny can look after themselves, that's why they're so good at what they do, and they'll be back before you know it. And in the meantime, we make a good team." Captain Becker assured her.

For one, sparkling moment Captain Becker reached out to Sarah's hand to offer her comfort. But he stopped just before their hands touched and cursed at himself in his head. He could fight dinosaurs, but he couldn't make a decent conversation with women and be caring towards them. The embarrassment must have shown on his face, as Sarah seemed to notice, she smiled at herself at the irony of it.

"You're shyer than you seem aren't you?" Sarah joked, trying to cover up the fact she was actually saddened by this. But just as she said those words she realised that this perhaps wasn't a very good thing to say, that she may have insulted him and made him angry. She was surprised therefore when Becker did not seem angered by this, but in fact he laughed and smiled.

"No, it just seems to be you," Captain Becker admitted, before realising too that this perhaps wasn't a good thing to say in front of Sarah, he had no idea how she might react.

In fact Sarah reacted the exact way he expected her to act, blinking in surprise and looking up at him as if she was sure she hadn't quite heard him right, that he was perhaps speaking a different language that she couldn't understand. But she didn't look horrified at the prospect. If only she knew how long he had been holding those few words in, and then suddenly let them fall out his mouth, making him feel like a complete fool. There had been a few times when Becker had considered telling her, but work always seemed to get in the way, and he decided it was best if perhaps she didn't know how he felt.

It was then that Becker realised that Sarah had gone bright red, she was trying to cover it up by staring at the floor, so he tried not to notice but it made him smile, Becker could still see that Sarah felt sad though. Perhaps she was still worrying about Abby, Connor and Danny, which he couldn't blame her for. He suddenly felt regret that he hadn't had the nerve to reach out and take her hand, even if it was such a small gesture. Becker suddenly realised that they were both being quite quiet once more, so he took the opportunity to reach out and take Sarah's hand, squeezing it gently, she squeezed back with a small smile.

There was another moment of silence, as the two sat there, hand in hand, gazing into each other's eyes. It was as if they were both captured by the confusing emotions that lingered inside of them, or struck by the beauty of the other's eyes. Only the loud bang of a door, as a technician entered the room, walking briskly past and glancing at them, made Sarah and Becker break away from each other, eyes dropping down to the floor and hands shifting away just as quickly. They both smiled at themselves equally embarrassed.

"Err listen," Becker cleared his throat, trying to think of the right thing to say.

Sarah was looking back up at him again, and he found himself stumbling over his words, unable to think quite what to say. A voice in the back of his voice told him to pull himself together and stop acting like an idiot, he had already started the sentence, so he might as well finish it. He would look more like an idiot if he didn't say anything now, and he would regret it forever if he kept his mouth shut. The time seemed right to do it now.

"If you're not going to be sitting here doing nothing again next Saturday," Becker spoke slowly, picking his words carefully and trying to sound casual at the same time. "I was thinking if perhaps you would like to go out to dinner with me?"

"I would love too!" Sarah replied, perhaps a little too quickly and enthusiastically, but she hadn't realised that those were the words she had been longing to hear for a long time.

"Great," said Becker, surprised at the fast and positive reply, and he grinned at her.

That was when Sarah realised that she would wait a hundred years for Abby, Connor and Danny, but for Captain Becker, she would wait a thousand. And as long as he would be sitting by he side like this, she could wait forever…

_Just found out that Laila Rouass (Sarah Page) will not be returning to Primeval series 4, that's a shame. At least I put her and Captain Becker together, I think they make a cute couple (: Please review!_


End file.
